7. Lightning BoltRide The Skies

They’re so great. I had friends at Rhode Island School Of Design, a crew of artists and comic creators there that Lightning Bolt were a part of, called Fort Thunder. I was making comics and photocopied stuff at the time, and to find out about these beautiful silk-screened comics and posters they were producing, and to see a picture of the Fort Thunder house, and hear the music they were all making, I was just like, “Who the fuck are these people? What’s going on in Rhode Island?” I had a friend, this crazy animator named Christy Karacas who created the Adult Swim show Superjail!, and he lived with his buddies from RISD in a little punk house in Williamsburg. Lightning Bolt came down to play one night – they just set up on the floor and went for it, and it was just such a blast of energy through the crowd. I don’t understand what [drummer/vocalist] Brian Chippendale is made of – he’s such a creative wellspring, an inspiration for real. And this record is great, their quote-unquote mainstream record. I played Lightning Bolt for my daughter, who’s eight. We were driving home, and the radio station went out, so it was just weird static and a theremin-y hum. I wasn’t paying attention to it, and when I realised, I turned it off, and she said, “I kind of liked that, daddy.” And I was like, I kind of did too, right? And I said, it reminded me of some noise rock. She was like, “What’s noise rock?” So when we got home I played some stuff for her, and she’s super into it.